Digital overlay offers on connected media devices

ABSTRACT

A computing device includes memory for storing commercial metadata and offer metadata harvested from within an offer distribution network. A processor compares the commercial metadata related to a broadcast commercial to be streamed to a client media device with the offer metadata related to available offers from offer providers, to generate a comparison. The processor then selects an offer from the available offers based on the comparison; determines when and over what video stream the broadcast commercial is to be streamed; detects that a screen device is paired to the client media device; and delivers the offer to a display of the screen device during streaming of the broadcast commercial over the video stream to the client media device. When a user of the screen device selects an indicia of the offer, the offer is collected into a virtual wallet from which the offer can be redeemed in various ways.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICAION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/220,466, filed Sep. 18, 2015, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated herein by this reference.

BACKGROUND

Media consumption devices, such as smart televisions (TVs) andset-top-boxes (STBs), may access digital content and receive data acrossa number of mechanisms, such as traditional broadcast televisionchannels via satellite or over the air (OTA), or streaming media via atelephone line, cable, Internet, and so forth upon request. Mediaconsumption devices, such as smart televisions (TVs), may accessbroadcast digital content and receive data, such as streaming media,from data networks (such as the Internet). Streaming media refers to aservice in which media content such as movies or news may be provided toan end user over a telephone line, cable, Internet, and so forth uponrequest. For example, a user may view a movie without having to leavetheir residence.

As the number of media consumption devices continues to increase, videocontent generation and delivery may similarly increase. With an increasein use of media consuming devices (such as smartphones, tablets, andsmart televisions) to access streaming media, content or networkproviders (such as local broadcasters, multi-channel networks, and othercontent owners/distributors) may distribute contextually-relevantmaterial to viewers that are consuming streaming media (e.g., mediaprograms). For example, local broadcasters may includecontextually-relevant advertisements and interactive content withstreaming media.

Traditional television broadcast advertising helps provide a marketingmix for marketers to promote their goods and services to users.Traditionally, however, a user may not act immediately on consumerinterest gained from a television broadcast commercial or a newcommercial plays immediately afterwards, diverting the user's attentionand lessening the chance a user will follow up on an initial interest inthe good or service advertised in the television broadcast commercial.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure will be understood more fully from the detaileddescription given below and from the accompanying drawings of variousembodiments of the disclosure. The drawings, however, should not betaken to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments, but are forexplanation and understanding only.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system diagram of an offer distribution networkaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 2A illustrates a diagram of one embodiment of the offer system ofFIG. 1, within an offer distribution network.

FIG. 2B illustrates a flow chart of one embodiment of a method foridentifying an offer for digital overlay delivery during a streamingmedia commercial.

FIG. 3A illustrates a system diagram of an implementation of the offerdistribution networks of FIGS. 1-2B.

FIG. 3B illustrates a block diagram of a communication or screen deviceas illustrated in FIG. 3A, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a media commercial together withrelated metadata according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5A illustrates an example offer together with offer metadata in adirect offer example of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example offer together with offer metadata in anindirect offer example of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate several screen shots of a virtual walletdisplaying a digital offer after the offer has been collected.

FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C illustrate several screen shots of a virtual walletin which a digital offer is detected, collected and displayed with othercollected offers.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method of providing digital offerson a connected media device.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary automatic content recognition (ACR)system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexample form of a computer system within which a set of instructions,for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Media content broadcasting or streaming, such as television (TV) orinternet show broadcasting, can be an engaging venue to advertiseproducts and services, provide information to viewers (also referred toas “users” herein), or any combination thereof. Accordingly,broadcasters want to know what programs individual viewers are watching,and when, such that subject matter of those programs may be used toaccurately target offers and other useful, optionally non-commercialinformation to the viewers. Non-commercial information may include, forexample, news alerts, announcements or educational information. It wouldtherefore be advantageous to determine a program a user is watching oris about to watch, and to send an identification of the programinformation to an offer system for use in such targeting actions. Insimilar fashion, a user may want to obtain targeted offers that may havebeen displayed during a program, but missed because the user stepped outor could not be present. An offer, as referred to herein, extends to anyoffer, advertisement, coupon, deal, discount or in-kind benefit.

To increase the impact and effectiveness of television broadcastcommercials, users may want a benefit that is easy to obtain andtargeted to meet their needs or interests identified through variouscommercials. An offer system and methods may provide such benefits bymatching metadata related to product or service offers (herein alsoreferred to as just “offers”) from multiple sources to metadata ofprograms and/or television commercials that may originate from multiplechannels, so as to deliver the best offers to respective commercialsacross a wide variety of broadcasted content and commercials. Userprofile type information may also be used to target certain offers toidentified users.

In one embodiment, a screen device (such as an intelligent remotecontrol, a smart phone, tablet and the like) may be paired with a clientmedia device (e.g., a TV or computer) to which programming is beingstreamed. The screen device may, acting as a type of remote control,interact with offer-related selections on the client media device,including by selecting the offer itself, thus choosing to collect theoffer. In another embodiment, an application running on the screendevice may display the offer that corresponds to a TV commercial beingstreamed to the client media device to which the screen device ispaired. A user may then directly collect the offer by selecting theoffer being displayed on the screen device. In yet another embodiment,there is only a single screen device to which TV programming is streamedand on which an application (or software development kit (SDK)) isexecuted that detects when a commercial is played, and delivers anoverlay or pop-up offer on the same screen that best targets thecommercial. This overlay or pop-up offer may be selectable through adisplay of the single screen device by a user, to collect the offer.

The offer system and methods may aggregate collected offers in one placesuch as a virtual wallet accessible by the user from the screen deviceas well as from numerous other devices, thus allowing the user todigitally collect these benefits immediately at the time the commercialis broadcast, yet still be able to redeem the offers at a time andlocation convenient to the user (e.g., with a purchase online or at aphysical store location). Offers may also be collected belatedly bybrowsing on the screen device to already displayed offers, e.g., thoseoffers that the user may have missed when stepping out or being absent.

The offer system may generate offers from related sources as well. Forexample, offers related to the same branded products may be generated bya brand owner, by franchisees or by retailers authorized to carry andsell the branded products or services for which the offers are targetedto the users. The disclosed offer system and method may also send anidentification of a channel the user is watching to an offer providerand receive, from the offer provider, an offer contextually-relevant toa subject matter of a media program being played on that channel. Theoffer system and method may then deliver the offer (or other content) tothe media device for display as an overlay or as a pop-up ad during abreak (e.g., a certain slot or position) in the media program.Alternatively, or additionally, the offer may be displayed on a screendevice that is paired with a client media device, and thus the offer maybe directly selectable by a user on a display of the screen device. Aspart of the offer selection process, interests of the user as determinedfrom a user profile may be factored into selecting an offer for deliveryto a particular user during a commercial.

To provide users with media content, an individual or an organizationmay stream the media content to users, such as by delivering the mediacontent over a broadcast medium to the users. The media content used bythe individual or the organization may be media content (such as videodata) acquired from one or more live broadcast media feeds. For example,a media content provider may provide a user with a linear media channel(e.g., media provided from a live media feed source to a viewer) over abroadcast medium, such as via satellite, over the air, via telephoneline, cable or the Internet.

The word “content” may be used to refer to media or multimedia. The word“content” may also be a specific term that means the subject matter ofthe medium rather than the medium itself. Likewise, the word “media” andsome compound words that include “media” (e.g. multimedia, hypermedia)are instead referring to content, rather than to the channel throughwhich the information is delivered to the end user/audience. Media ormedia content may include graphical representations, such as: videos,films, television shows, commercials, streaming video, and so forth;text; graphics; animations; still images; interactivity content forms;and so forth. An example of a type of content commonly referred to as atype of media is a “motion picture” referred to as “a film.”

In one embodiment, a content overlay system or a content overlay devicemay enable combining media content with specific, timely, and/ortargeted overlay content such as advertising, to include digital offers.The content overlay system or content overlay device may enable overlaycontent providers to engage with viewers by inviting the viewers torespond to a call to action within the content overlays (e.g., aninvitation to engage the content overlay). One advantage of inviting theviewers to a call to action may be to provide a return path or follow-uppath for the viewers to request additional information, ask questions,provide input, contact a provider of a service or product advertised,and so forth. Another advantage of inviting the viewer to a call toaction may be to provide a return path or follow up path for theadvertisers to provide additional information, further engage theviewers, gather additional information about the viewers, answer viewerquestions about the product or service advertised, and so forth. Inanother example, the content overlay system or the content overlaydevice may enable an advertiser to use cross platform retargetingcampaigns once a viewer has viewed and/or interacted with an overlaycontent of a media program.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system diagram of an offer distribution network 100according to one embodiment. The offer distribution network 100 mayinclude, for example, an audio-video (A/V) distribution network 101,content providers 102 (such as local broadcasters, multi-channelnetworks, and other content owners/distributors), media commercialproviders 104, offer providers 106, advertising agencies 107 and anoffer system 110, all of which may be executed on at least one computingdevice such as a server or computer, and have access to digital mediacontent, commercials and offers. An offer, as referred to herein,extends to any offer, advertisement, coupon, deal, discount or in-kindbenefit. In one embodiment, a commercial provider 104 can be integratedwith an offer provider 106, e.g., be the same entity, as indicated bythe dashed line. Additionally, or alternatively, an advertising agency107 may also be an offer provider 106, e.g., be one and the same, asindicated by the dashed line.

The content providers 102 may broadcast media content over the A/Vdistribution network 101 or over a network 119 to any number of clientmedia devices 115 (also referred to herein as internet-enabled mediadevices 115) that receive digital media such as television (TV) or otherstreamed A/V content (e.g., media content). Accordingly, the A/Vdistribution network 101 may be an intranet, an over-the-air (OTA)network, a cable network, a personal area network (PAN), a local areanetwork (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) or a combination thereof. Thenetwork 119, furthermore, may be the Internet, an intranet or acombination of networks through which media content is streamed toclient media devices through wired connections, wirelessly, or via acombination thereof.

The client media devices 115 may receive and interact with the mediacontent from the content providers 102, the commercials (oradvertisements) received from the commercial providers 104 and offersfrom the offer providers 106. The advertising agencies 107 may alsoprovide advertisements and other offers that may also be available todeliver with the media content. The offer system 110 may collectcommercial metadata from the commercials displayed (or slotted fordisplay) during broadcasts or other streaming media provided by thecontent providers 102. The offer system 110 may store the commercialmetadata in a commercial metadata database 114. The offer system 110 mayfurther collect offer metadata from offers that are available from theoffer providers 106 as overlays, pop-ups or other types ofadvertisements displayable over or in conjunction with a commercial orother advertisement. The offer system 110 may store the offer metadatain an offer metadata database 116. The offers that are retrieved,received or created as will be explained may be stored in an offersdatabase 118.

The offer distribution network 100 may further include an automaticcontent recognition (ACR) system) 160, which will be discussed in moredetail. The ACR system 160 may provide automatic content recognitioncapability to the offer system 110, in order to properly match up offerswith commercials or with content being streamed to identified channelson the client media devices 115.

FIG. 2A illustrates a diagram of one embodiment of the offer system 110of FIG. 1 within an offer distribution network 200. The offerdistribution network 200 may include the offer system 110, a pluralityof client media devices 115 and screen devices 215 that may beassociated (or paired) with a client media device, as will be explainedin more detail with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. In one embodiment, aclient media device 115 is combined with a screen device 215 within asingle communication device that operates as both devices in one. Eachscreen device 215 may also include a virtual wallet 240. In oneembodiment, the offer distribution system 200 also include asynchronization manager 250 that manages synchronized control of themetadata and offers across the client media devices 115, the screendevices 215 and associated virtual wallets 240 as will be explained inmore detail.

The offer system 110 may further include, but not be limited to, acommercial harvester 208, an offer harvester 212, a commercial offermapper 220, an offer creator 222, an offer targeter 224, and a usertracker 226. The offer system 110 may further include the commercialmetadata database 114, the offer metadata database 116 and the offersdatabase 118. The user tracker 226 may include, as subparts (or whichmay be executed separately), a pairing director 232, an offer tracker236 and virtual wallets 240 associated with respective users of thescreen devices 215 that are paired with corresponding client mediadevices 115 to which media content is being streamed. The virtualwallets 240 may further be located within the screen devices 215 andaccessible by users of the client media devices 115 after collection, aswill be explained in detail.

With additional reference to FIG. 2B, the commercial harvester 208 mayanalyze commercials that have been or are going to be streamed to theclient media devices 115 from the content providers 102, and pull outcommercial metadata 202 related to the commercials. Harvesting of themetadata 201 may further occur, additionally or alternatively, viaapplication programming interfaces (APIs) 244, an automatic filetransfer (246) (such as through a direct link connection), or a manualentry (248) (e.g., by an advertising agency). The commercial metadata202 may include information such as shown for exemplary purposes in thecommercial mockup of FIG. 4. For example, the commercial metadata 202may include company or brand (e.g., in this example, BRAND_A),occurrence, co-op partner (such as BRAND_B in this case), a title, acategory (e.g., wireless communications) or other topic or subject suchas a subcategory (e.g., smartphone). The commercial metadata 202 mayfurther include a celebrity in the commercial, a first run, a last run,a network or channel identifying the content provider 102, a geographicclearance or scope, and a description of the commercial. Although notshown in FIG. 4, the commercial metadata may also include informationrelated to identified users being targeted such that comparisons may bemade with relation to targeted users as well.

The offer harvester 212 may analyze offers and retrieve offer metadata204 related to various offers that could be delivered in conjunctionwith specific commercials. This harvesting of the offer metadata 204 mayoccur via application programming interfaces (APIs) 254, an automaticfile transfer (256) (such as through a direct link connection), or amanual entry (258) (e.g., by an advertising agency). As shown in FIGS.5A and 5B, the offer metadata 204 may include company or brand. In FIG.5A, the offer is for a BRAND_A product by BRAND_A, otherwise known as adirect offer because it comes from the brand owner. In FIG. 5B, theoffer is for a BRAND_A product by BRAND_C, a vendor of the brand owner,thus otherwise known as an indirect offer. A contract or businessrelationship may exist between brand owner and vendor or retailer. Theoffer metadata 204 may further include what product is being discountedor offered for sale, and what that discount is. The offer metadata 204may further include a uniform resource locator (URL) or other link to anonline site from where a user may redeem the offer, whether there willbe a fee for redemption, offer identification (ID) or other identifier,and start and end dates and times that the offer will remain in effect.Other offer metadata may be provided, and is not constrained by theexamples of FIGS. 5A and 5B.

The commercial offer mapper 220 may then match specific offers withcertain commercials by way of matching up certain parts of respectivemetadata, and target the specific offers to be delivered with thosecertain commercials (260). The commercial offer mapper 220 may determineall potential matches between media content commercials and offers, andstore the matches in the offers database 118 (which may be linked to thecommercial metadata database 114). An offer may need to meet a thresholdlevel of matching a commercial before being identified as a potentialmatch. For example, a certain amount of metadata may need to match wherecertain types of metadata may be weighted heavier over other types. Suchoffers may include both offers that would be considered direct matches262 and those that would be considered indirect matches 264, as justexplained.

The commercial offer mapper 220 may further perform a category match,for example, all of the commercials that are categorized as “Men'sFashion” may be matched against all of the offers that are categorizedas Men's Fashion. In this example, the source of the product being fromone manufacturer or brand provider as distinguished from another may notplay a role. The offer targeter 212 may further perform product matches,for example, by matching the TV commercials categorized as “Product A”to the offers that relate to Product A (and the same could be done forService A). While some products (or services) are provided by only asingle entity, many products are made by numerous entities or sources,and thus the commercial offer mapper 220 may expand sources of availableoffers by enlarging the scope of its search. Additional or differentsearches may be performed for different kinds or a combination ofpatterns to which to match commercials (or advertisements) to offers fordetermining which offers to display with which commercials.

The offer creator 222 may create an advertising campaign with parametersand/or targeting rules (270). In some embodiments, particularly wherethere are few or no offers identified as matches by the commercial offermapper 220, the offer creator 222 may create an offer that is bestsuited to a certain commercial and/or for targeting an identified user.This may be done by combining components of offers from offer providers106 and/or by updating or changing an existing offer for bettertargeting or for compatibility with a content stream that includes theassociated commercial. The offer creator 222 may check rules in thecampaign (272) in creating an offer or pass those rules on to the offertargeter 224, which may help with targeting offers by the offer targeter224, as will be explained. The offer creator 222 may also provide formanual insertion of new offers into certain campaigns (274) to complywith contract or in the absence of metadata for which matches could beprovided.

As will be explained in more detail, the offer system 110 (or anassociated content management system) may determine what program a useris watching, determine a channel (or uniform resource locator) on whichthat program is being streamed (e.g., with help from the ACR system160), and then target specific offers to identified users watching acommercial for which an offer is targeted. In some cases, when the offercreator 222 creates the offer as just explained, the offer targeter 224is not used because the offer creator 222 may perform the targetingfunction in generating an offer to be delivered to a specific userviewing a specific commercial. Accordingly, the offer targeter 224 isdisplayed in dashed lines as being optional in any given embodiment.

When employed, the offer targeter 224 may select an offer best matchinga commercial (280), and optionally targeted to a specific user, fordelivery with that commercial. The offer targeter 224 may use thecommercial metadata 202, the offer metadata 204 and a number of sourcesof user metadata 205 in determining targeting of an offer to acommercial being watched by an identified user. For example, the offertargeter 224 or the offer creator 222 may further consider the usermetadata 205 in choosing an appropriate offer to serve with thecommercial. In various embodiments, the user metadata 205 may includebut not be limited to user-related metadata as well as userenvironment-related metadata. The user-related metadata may include butnot be limited to user preferences, history of interaction by the userwith other offers (e.g., previously choosing or passing up on an offer,deal or coupon), a profile of the user to include gender, family type,location, buying habits, and other interests. The userenvironment-related metadata may include weather, location of the user'sclient media device 115 (e.g., geo-targeting), daypart (or time) andother information coming from or based on the client media device 115 oron the screen device 215 (FIG. 3A). If an offer from a product orservice provider of a certain brand or company is not available, theoffer targeter 212 may select an offer available from a franchisee,retailer or vendors authorized to provide such branded products orservices.

For example, the offer system 110 may distinguish between a direct offerand an indirect offer as follows. Direct offers may relate directly tothe underlying commercial; for example, a TV commercial for BRAND_A maybe matched to a coupon from BRAND_A. Indirect offers may be offersprovided by the underlying TV commercial brand, but provide an indirectrelationship to the company that owns the TV commercial brand. Forexample, the offer system 110 detects a TV commercial for BRAND_A, butand there are no offers stored in the offers database 118 for BRAND_A.Retailer A, however, stocks the products being advertised in the TVcommercial for BRAND_A. An offer for Retailer A's products may thereforebe presented to the user allowing BRAND_A's product to be used withRetailer A's offer.

As a more detailed example of a direct offer, suppose a Winn-Dixie™television commercial is broadcast. The offer system 110 interrogatesthe databases 114, 116, and 118 for commercial metadata, offer metadata,and offers, respectively, and finds an appropriate Winn-Dixie™ offer(via the approach discussed with reference to FIG. 2B). The offer maythen be compared to a known profile of the user. The user has indicateda preference for Coca-Cola® in the past. The offer system 110 finds anactive coupon (e.g., an offer for a discount) for Coca-Cola® atWinn-Dixie™ in the offers database 118, which is considered the bestcoupon to deliver with the Winn-Dixie™ commercial.

Suppose, however, that there is no Coca-Cola® offer. A hierarchy ofrules may be followed to serve a second-best offer, and so on. In thisexample, perhaps a percentage off a basket of items may be deliveredinstead. Because this is a direct offer (from Winn-Dixie™), onlyWinn-Dixie™ deals or coupons will be delivered with the Winn-Dixie™commercial.

By way of further example of an indirect offer, a Coca-Cola® televisioncommercial is now broadcast. The offer system 110 interrogates thedatabases 114, 116, and 118 to obtain commercial metadata, offermetadata, and offers, respectively, and finds an appropriate Coca-Cola®offer. Rather than not serve a direct offer, the offer system 110 maysearch for any indirect offers in the offers database 118. In oneembodiment, the offer system 110 selects an indirect offer such asprovided by a retailer or vendor that best targets the user (such as viathe approach discussed with reference to FIG. 2B). For example, theoffer system 110 may consider a number of available factors related tothe user such as purchase history (e.g., store preference, productpreference, and the like), geo-location information (what retailers arenearby, or any enhanced offers for retailers that are farther away),other user profile factors (e.g., gender, age), and the like. Anindirect offer is not provided by an entity who is also the advertiserrunning the commercial (e.g., Coca-Cola® in this case), but indirectly,such as a retailer or vendor where the advertiser will still indirectlybenefit (e.g., through a vendor sale). For example, a Winn-Dixie™ offermay be delivered in this embodiment where the user may redeem an offerfor Coca-Cola at Winn-Dixie™.

When a recognized piece of content is played on the client media device115, the commercial metadata (related to a product or service that isthe subject of the commercial) may be matched to appropriate offermetadata, from which an offer may be selected that is then displayed onthe client media device 115 as an overlay, pop-up or other kind ofdisplay ad. Once selected, the offer is considered collected by theuser, and a confirmation of such selection may be provided by the offeror in conjunction with the offer in another part of the display of theclient media device 115. Furthermore, a “Show More” selection option maybe provided which, when selected by a user, may display a list ofadditionally available offers. The additional available offers may beobtained from those that ranked below the originally displayed offerwhen searched for by the offer targeter 212, but are nonetheless stillrelevant. In such a case, the user may want to select another offer tocollect that offer.

The user tracker 226 may perform many functions, some of which will beexplained in more detail. The user tracker 226 may track identifiedusers, e.g., by an internet protocol (IP) address or a media accesscontrol (MAC) address, login or user identification (ID) fromregistration and through other means. In one embodiment, the usertracker 226 may also track user activity in relation to offers that aretagged with an advertising ID affiliated with a third party for goods orservices (e.g., an Apple® advertising ID or a Google® advertising ID).Accordingly, the user tracker 226 may track the user's activity withrespect to specifically identified goods or services being advertised bythird party commercial or offer providers.

The user tracker 226 may thus track activity by a user such as, only byway of example: viewing behavior such as channels watched and when;interests to include types of programming watched or content accessedonline with the client media devices 115; types of offers collected(using the offer tracker 236); and buying behavior generally as well asspecifically associated with redeeming the offers (using the offertracker 236). In one embodiment, the tracking of actual redemption ofthe offers is performed outside of the offer system 110, e.g., by anadvertising agency, which information can be provided back to the offersystem 110 for compilation with other tracked data for purposes ofreporting. The user tracker 226 may also build user profiles with suchinformation obtained from tracked user activity. These user profiles maybe updated over time. In this way, user behavior related to specificoffers may be tracked to determine the effectiveness of the combinationof the commercial and the associated offer delivered as an overlay orotherwise in conjunction with the commercial. The offer targeter 224 maythen access the user profiles in performing the targeting discussedpreviously.

The user tracker 226 may further track the number of times an offer wasmade available to a particular user, and after a predefined number oftimes not collecting the offer, the offer system 110 may rotate out theoffer for a different offer. Effectiveness of this different offer maythen be tracked and results of collection of this different offerrecorded. As a further embodiment, the user tracker 226 may track whichoffers have already been collected, and function to deliver a differentoffer to a user when the user has already collected the originallyselected offer. This alternative offer may be second on a ranked list,for example.

Offers may be collected by users in ways as will be described withreference to FIG. 3A. Such offers may be collected within and redeemedfrom virtual wallets 240, which may be stored and managed by the offersystem 110. When offers are redeemed, a purchase normally is made by theuser doing the redeeming, and thus a conversion may be logged, althougha “conversion” may also include an impression (e.g., a click on theproduct offering) or a user browsing an affiliate website to which theoffer links. This conversion activity may be tracked in conjunction withthe offers in the offer metadata database 116, which may be linked orarranged in association with the offers in the offers database 118.Other types of metadata, such as location of user, affiliate partnerthat provides the offer, and the like, may be tracked in conjunctionwith redeeming and/or conversion activity, so that reporting may beperformed in relation this type of data. In one embodiment, a cookie orsoftware tag (or the like) may be associated with each offer, and thusafter collection, the offer system 110 (or an affiliate's trackingsystem) may be able to track actions, including purchase or other typeof conversion, taken with respect to individual offers.

The synchronization manager 250 may be integrated within the offersystem 110 or may be its own standalone system, such as a service devicethat is communicatively coupled with the offer system 110, the clientmedia devices 115 and with the associated screen devices 215. In oneembodiment, the synchronization manager 250 may track and synchronizethe offers stored in the offers database 118 as related to relevantmetadata, and as related to the client media devices 115 and the screendevices 215 from which some of the metadata is derived and to whichselect ones of the offers may be targeted for delivery. Thesynchronization manager 250 may also track which screen devices 215 arepaired to which client media devices 115.

The synchronization manager 250, therefore, helps to distinguish fromwhich devices certain kinds of metadata are derived, to which devicesselect offers have been delivered, and which offers are currently storedin which virtual wallets 240. In this way, the synchronization managerhelps the offer system 110 remain up to date in the offer creation andtargeting performed by the offer system 110, and to alert the offersystem 110 to select a different offer than a suggested offer when thesuggested offer already resides in the virtual wallet 240 of a screendevice 215 to which the suggested offer is to be delivered.

The synchronization manager 250 may also interface with the ACR system160 to ensure the synchronization of the metadata and offers is properlytimed to identified commercials on TV channels or via Internet websites(such as Uniform Resource Locator s (URLs)). For example, thesynchronization manager 250 may receive a notification or signal fromthe ACR system 160 as to when identified commercials are streaming towhich channels on a TV, media streaming application on a smart phone,tablet or the like, or are streaming to which websites on a computer,laptop, tablet or the like. The synchronization manager 250 can then goto the offer system 110 to obtain a relevant offer to deliver to aspecific device at the proper time when a targeted commercial is aboutto be streamed. Accordingly, the synchronization manager 250 may act asa public facing entity that tracks and synchronizes the data, metadataand information used by the offer system 110 to function in a timelymanner, so that offers are delivered to the correct client media devices115 or screen devices 215 when the corresponding commercials beingtargeted are being streamed to the client media devices (or to a pairedscreen device itself).

FIG. 3A illustrates a system diagram of an implementation of the offerdistribution networks 100 and 200 of FIGS. 1-2B. In one embodiment, theoffer system 110 may select or create an offer 306 that optionallytargets an identified user 320 of a client media device 115 (such as aTV or computer) and of a screen device 215 (such as a smart phone, atablet, a laptop or other Internet-enabled computing device). In oneembodiment, the offer 306 may be delivered as an overlay, pop-up,in-lined or inset advertisement on a display of the client media device115 at the time a related commercial is being displayed during anadvertising slot of a media broadcast or the like. In anotherembodiment, the offer 306 is delivered as such an advertisement on adisplay of the screen device 215 to which the client media device 115 ispaired and at the time a related commercial is being displayed on theclient media device 115. The offer 306 may include text, images oranimation and may appear across any section of the client media device115, to any specified size, and with any color and content. The offer306, when positioned as an overlay on top of a media commercial, may bedynamically or manually changed to not obscure the underlying content ofthe media commercial. For example, when the overlay is in the top leftby default and the media commercial or advertisement includes atelephone number in the top left, the overlay may be moved to the topright or some other location.

By way of various examples, the offer 306 may be displayed onInternet-enabled TVs that have a Hypertext Markup Language(HTML5)-compliant browser. In this example, the offer 306 can beconstructed as an HTML, cascading style sheet (CSS), or JavaScriptobject and rendered by the browser as an overlay on top of theunderlying audio-video (A/V) content. Alternatively, or additionally,the offer 306 can be pre-generated as an image and injected into thegraphics layer of the TV via system level Open Graphic Library (OpenGL)application programming interface (API) calls. Alternatively, oradditionally, on Internet-enabled TVs that support industry standardssuch as Advanced Television System Committee 3.0 (ATSC 3.0), the offer306 can be delivered via a defined graphical overlay component.

Further by way of example on screen devices 215, the offer 306 can beconstructed and triggered as system notifications, such as Google CloudMessaging (GCM) and Apple Push Notifications Services (APNs).Alternatively, or additionally, the offer 306 can be delivered as aJavaScript Object Notation (JSON), which is a lightweightdata-interchange format, and rendered natively by any application asappropriate to a user interface of the screen device 215.

The client media device 115 may include an associated remote control324. The pairing director 232 of the offer system 110 may interact withor otherwise enable a screen device 215 (e.g., any communication devicethat has a touch screen display) to also pair with the client mediadevice 115. This pairing may be performed through or with the help of anapplication (or “app”) installed on the screen device 215. The pairingmay be performed by way of various private area networking (PAN)technology such as near field communication, a Bluetooth® connectiondeveloped by Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), via infrared,wireless communication or wired communication and/or via a manualprocess specified as entering in a unique code on both devices thatallow the screen device 215 and the client media device 115 tointercommunicate. In one embodiment, the pairing is not needed becausethe client media device 115 may be sold to the consumer with the screendevice 215 that was already paired in the factory.

In one embodiment, the screen device 215 may also be able to trackactivity performed by the remote control 324, particularly with regardsto interaction with the offer 306, by tracking such interaction on theclient media device 115 with the screen device 215. In one example, thescreen device 215 may detect selection of “Okay” or the like by theremote control 324 to collect an offer. The identified user 320 mayselect the offer 306 with either the remote control 324 or the screendevice 215, once paired, and thus collect the offer 306.

More specifically, in one example, the selection of the offer is via aremote control action on the offer 306 as displayed on the client mediadevice 115, whether by the remote control 324 or by the screen device215. In another example, the selection is via a user selecting the offer306 displayed as a notification or banner ad directly in the display ofthe screen device 215. This other example may use an applicationinstalled on the screen device 215 and in which the offers aredisplayed. When selected, a visual indication 308 of the selection ofthe offer may be shown on any or all connected devices, such as theclient media device 115, the screen device 215 (and an additional screendevice). When collected, the offer 306 may be added to a virtual wallet340, which may be redeemed at a later time and location (e.g., eitheronline or at a retail location) convenient to the user. The virtualwallet 340 may be available through the screen device 215 as well asthrough various other client media devices 115 of the identified user320.

FIG. 3B illustrates a block diagram of a communications or screen device215 as illustrated in FIG. 3A, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The screen device 215 may include memory 350 storinginstructions (e.g., instructions for installing and executing anapplication), a processor 354, personal area network (PAN) circuitry 358and a display device 362, which may include a touchscreen, input/output(I/O) interface(s) 366, and a geographic locater 368 (such asgeo-positioning device or component).

The memory 350 may store a pending offers database 352, a virtual wallet240 and a global virtual wallet 340. The virtual wallet 240 may feedcollected offers to the global virtual wallet 340, which may then beredeemed on a wider scale. In one example, the global virtual wallet 340is an Apple Pay Wallet from Apple® of Cupertino, Calif. In anotherexample, the global virtual wallet 340 is a Google Wallet from Google®of Mountain View, Calif.

The display device 362 may include a touchscreen and various optionswithin the application for interacting with the client media device 115,to collect offers, to browse and select additional offers and to redeemselected offers. The PAN circuitry 358 may facilitate pairing the screendevice 215 with the client media device 115 as discussed.

The pending offers database 352 may be a repository for storing aplurality of offers that have been offered in conjunction withcommercials streamed to the client media device 115. For example, theoffers may be queued in the pending offers database 352 chronologicallyor organized according to brand owner (or the like) and delivered to theapplication being run on the screen device 215. In this way, a user thatmissed some of the offers because the user was not present whencorresponding commercials were streamed to the client media device 115,may browse and select additional offers from within the application.These selected additional offers may then be moved to the virtual wallet240 from which the offers may be redeemed, e.g., at or through a POSdevice of a vendor or retailer, or online.

The screen device 215 may further include a synchronization plugin 370or other logic that works in conjunction with the synchronizationmanager 150, such as to tag metadata from the screen device 215 with anidentifier or other code unique to the screen device 215. Thesynchronization plugin 370 may further ensure proper timing of offerdelivery when a relevant commercial is played, e.g., though receipt ofACR signals from the synchronization manager 150 that provides thisinformation. The synchronization plugin 370 may further ensure thesynchronization manager 150 is updated with the latest offers collectedwith the virtual wallet 240.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate screen shots of a virtual wallet displaying adigital offer after the offer has been collected. Different options areprovided for redemption, such as redeeming in store, e.g., through apoint-of-sale (POS) system, or online or through other means and inother contexts.

FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C illustrate several screen shots of a virtual walletin which a digital offer is detected, collected and displayed with othercollected offers. In FIG. 7A, content about “The 2015 Silverado 3500HD”is displayed as a featured deal, and recent TV offers are listed towardsthe bottom of the screen of a mobile device application (although theseFigures may be displayed in a computer browser or the like as well). Thescreen in FIG. 7B displays a banner 710 in which an offer for PetSmartis displayed (Save $10 on $50 spend, or Save $20 on $100 spend). Thisoffer may be detected so that the user may select the offer, and thusplace the offer 320 into the virtual wallet 340, which is displayed inFIG. 7C. The virtual wallet may then display (such as in a tabbedfashion with a brief description on each tab), which offers areavailable for redemption. If a long list of offers is saved in thevirtual wallet, the virtual wallet may be scrollable or text searchableto help a user find a relevant or desired offer quickly.

With further reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B, if the user is not presentand is unable to collect the offer at the time of the TV commercial, theuser may be able to browse, using the screen device 215, to track anddisplay recently missed (or pending) offers based on the commercialbroadcast activity of the connected client media device 115. In oneembodiment, when the screen device 215 is paired to the client mediadevice 115, the screen device tracks the commercials that were playedbut missed by the user. So, for example, when the user leaves the roomfor a period of time and is therefore missing the content of atelevision being played, the application on the screen device 215 mayshow the user what commercials played and their linked offers, which theuser may then collect from the screen device 215. As long as thetelevision is on, the offers may continue to accumulate and be availableto the user, e.g., through the screen device 215.

More specifically, because the offer system 110 stores historicalcommercial metadata, the offer system 110 may also deliver offers fordisplay on the screen device that were missed by the user during certainperiods of time. For example, if a user wanted to see what offers weredisplayed during a live televised event (where potentially the bestoffers were available), the user may browse through these commercialsand collect the associated offers, ensuring that a user does not missthe best deals.

The offer tracker 224, in conjunction with the user tracker 226, may beable to track which offer was displayed with which media commercial oradvertisement, whether the offer was selected, whether the user engagedthat offer to view more detail about a product or service online (e.g.,a product or service related to the commercial or the offer), and whattransactions came about by virtue of the user redeeming the offer.

As discussed, offers may be stored in a virtual (or cloud-based) wallet340 that is accessible to a user from a number of different devices. Avirtual wallet may contain the collected offers. Offers within thevirtual wallet 340 may be integrated with a point-of-sale (POS) devicevia communication technologies such as Bluetooth®, near fieldcommunication (NFC) and the like that allow the transfer of theinformation held within the offer from point to point, e.g., directlybetween the screen device 215 (or other device) and a retailer orvendor's POS system. In addition, the virtual wallet 340 may allowoffers to be integrated into third party wallets or other third partycoupon wallet aggregators. Even in this case, the activity related tosuch offers may be tracked by a cookie or other embedded code that maycommunicate back to the offer tracker 236 to determine how and when theoffer was redeemed, including whether the offer was redeemed online orat a physical store location, and at which websites or stores the offerwas redeemed. The offer tracker 236 may then message the user on thescreen device 215, prompting the user to supply additional informationabout the transaction, satisfaction with a product or service and thelike. This additional information may also be stored in the offermetadata database 116 and be used for future targeting of additionalusers or the same user that redeemed an offer.

The data that is tracked and stored in the offers database 118, theoffer metadata database 116 and the commercial metadata database 114 maybe indexed such that the data may be made available through a graphicaluser interface (GUI) to administrators, commercial and offer providers,and other customers of the offer system 110.

The offer system 110 allows for the right product offer to be matched tounderlying broadcast content, optionally targeted to a specific user,and saved by a user to their cloud-based or virtual wallet. The offersystem 110 may choose the right offer based on the user collecting theproduct offer from a broadcast commercial. The present disclosureobviates the need of the user to manually search for a product offer orclip a physical product offer, in making the selection and redemption ofthe product offer seamless in conjunction with viewing and interactingwith video-based advertising.

Use Cases

1—A television commercial is broadcast for Retailer A. The offer systemdetects that Retailer A's commercial is currently playing and thendecides the best product offer or coupon to display as an overlay on aclient media device or as a notification on a paired a screen device.User A sees the offer and collects the offer using a remote control orthe screen device. The product offer may then be saved to a virtualwallet for use online at Retailer A's website or at one of Retailer A'sphysical retail premises.

2—A television commercial is broadcast for Retailer B. The offer systemdetects that Retailer B's commercial is currently playing. The systemhas no matching, direct offers for ‘Retailer B,’ so looks at relatedproduct offers and coupons stored on the processing device. Theprocessing device finds a number of indirect matches that are thendisplayed as an overlay on a client media device or as a screen devicenotification. User A sees the product offer and then collects theproduct offer using a remote control or the screen device. The productoffer may then be saved to a virtual wallet for use online at anappropriate website or at an appropriate physical retail premises.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart 800 of a method of providing digitaloffers on a connected media device. The method may be at least partiallyperformed by processing logic that may include hardware (e.g.,circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.),software (e.g., instructions executed by a processing device), firmwareor a combination thereof. The method may be performed by processinglogic of the offer system 110 (FIG. 1), client device such as a clientmedia device 115, by a server system such as the ACR system 160 of orthe like. Alternatively, the method may be performed by other processingdevices in various types of user device, portable devices, televisions,projectors, or other media devices.

Referring to FIG. 8, the processing logic begins with harvesting (andstoring) commercial metadata related to broadcast commercials such as TVor broadcast commercials (810). The logic may continue by harvesting(and storing) offer metadata related to offers available to deliver, asan overlay or pop-up ad or the like, with the broadcast commercials(820). The logic may continue by matching the commercial metadata to theoffer metadata to determine which offers best to display on (or inconjunction with) which broadcast commercials (822), for example, whichoffers are most relevant to subject matter of each broadcast commercial.

With continued reference to FIG. 8, the logic may continue bydetermining a commercial is to be displayed on a channel or stream beingwatched by a user on a client media device (824). The logic may furthercontinue by filtering the offers to choose an offer targeted at the useror that matches subject matter of the commercial, such as a product orservice sold by a brand owner to which the commercial relates (830). Thelogic may continue by delivering the offer as an overlay or pop-up ad tothe commercial while the user is streaming the channel (or stream) tothe client media device (840). Optionally, this step may also includedelivering the offer as a notification to a paired communication device,such as the screen device 215. The logic may continue by receiving anindication of selection of the offer by a remote control or other pairedcommunication device (850). The logic may further continue bytransferring the offer to a virtual wallet accessible with the pairedcommunication device, and optionally also from other devices (860). Anycombination of these steps may be performed by the method of FIG. 8;accordingly, some steps like the step of blocks 824 and 830 may beskipped.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary automatic content recognition (ACR)system 160 according to one embodiment. The ACR system 900 may include,but not be limited to, sources of media that may carry different kindsof identifying features, including ACR 910, other triggers 920 andwatermarking 930. A client commercial detector 940 may detectcommercials (e.g., media advertisements) with the streaming mediaaccording to these and possibly other identifying features. Upondetection, the client commercial detector 940 may send an identificationof the commercial, which may include a channel or stream carrying thecommercial, to an overlay manager 950. The overlay manager 950 may sendan identification of the commercial, compatible types of offers and anyother information that may be needed by the offer system 110 to be ableto choose and target an offer to any of client media devices 115 or 415that are streaming the commercial.

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexample form of a computer system 1000 within which a set ofinstructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In alternativeembodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., networked) to othermachines in a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet. Themachine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client device in aclient-server network environment, or as a peer machine in apeer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine may be apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a webappliance, a server, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machinecapable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only asingle machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies discussed herein.

The computer system 1000 may correspond to the offer system 110, to theACR system 160, or to any content manager present in addition to or inlieu of the offer system 110. The computer system 1000 may alsocorrespond to any client media device 115 (e.g., Internet-enabled mediadevices) as those devices are broadly disclosed herein. The computersystem 1000 may correspond to at least a portion of a cloud-basedcomputer system.

The computer system 1000 includes a processing device 1002, a mainmemory 1004 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM) (such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or DRAM (RDRAM),etc.), a static memory 1006 (e.g., flash memory, static random accessmemory (SRAM), etc.), and a data storage device 1018, which communicatewith each other via a bus 1030.

Processing device 1002 represents one or more general-purpose processingdevices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like.More particularly, the processing device may be complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computer (RISC)microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, orprocessor implementing other instruction sets, or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. Processing device 1002may also be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor,or the like. In one embodiment, processing device 1002 may include oneor more processing cores. The processing device 1002 may execute theinstructions 1026 of a mirroring logic for performing the operationsdiscussed herein.

The computer system 1000 may further include a network interface device1008 communicably coupled to a network 1020. The computer system 1000also may include a video display unit 1010 (e.g., a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device1012 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 1014 (e.g., a mouse), asignal generation device 1016 (e.g., a speaker), or other peripheraldevices. Furthermore, computer system 1000 may include a graphicsprocessing unit 1022, a video processing unit 1028, and an audioprocessing unit 1032. In another embodiment, the computer system 1000may include a chipset (not illustrated), which refers to a group ofintegrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work with theprocessing device 1002 and controls communications between theprocessing device 1002 and external devices. For example, the chipsetmay be a set of chips on a motherboard that links the processing device1002 to very high-speed devices, such as main memory 1004 and graphiccontrollers, as well as linking the processing device 1002 tolower-speed peripheral buses of peripherals, such as USB, PCI or ISAbuses.

The data storage device 1018 may include a computer-readable storagemedium 1025 on which is stored instructions 1026 embodying any one ormore of the methodologies of functions described herein. Theinstructions 1026 may also reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 1004 and/or within the processing device 1002during execution thereof by the computer system 1000; the main memory1004 and the processing device 1002 also constituting computer-readablestorage media.

The computer-readable storage medium 1025 may also be used to storeinstructions 1026 utilizing logic and/or a software library containingmethods that call the above applications. While the computer-readablestorage medium 1025 is shown in an exemplary implementation to be asingle medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “computer-readablestorage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that iscapable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions 1026 forexecution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any oneor more of the methodologies of the present disclosure. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken toinclude, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media, andmagnetic media. The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limitednumber of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerousmodifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appendedclaims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of this present invention.

In the description herein, numerous specific details are set forth, suchas examples of specific types of processors and system configurations,specific hardware structures, specific architectural and microarchitectural details, specific register configurations, specificinstruction types, specific system components, specificmeasurements/heights, specific processor pipeline stages and operationetc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the presentinvention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art thatthese specific details need not be employed to practice the presentinvention. In other instances, well known components or methods, such asspecific and alternative processor architectures, specific logiccircuits/code for described algorithms, specific firmware code, specificinterconnect operation, specific logic configurations, specificmanufacturing techniques and materials, specific compilerimplementations, specific expression of algorithms in code, specificpower down and gating techniques/logic and other specific operationaldetails of computer system have not been described in detail in order toavoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention.

The embodiments are described with reference to secure memoryrepartitioning in specific integrated circuits, such as in computingplatforms or microprocessors. The embodiments may also be applicable toother types of integrated circuits and programmable logic devices. Forexample, the disclosed embodiments are not limited to desktop computersystems or portable computers, such as the Intel® Ultrabooks™ computers.And may be also used in other devices, such as handheld devices,tablets, other thin notebooks, systems on a chip (SoC) devices, andembedded applications. Some examples of handheld devices includecellular phones, Internet protocol devices, digital cameras, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), and handheld PCs. Embedded applicationstypically include a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), asystem on a chip, network computers (NetPC), set-top boxes, networkhubs, wide area network (WAN) switches, or any other system that mayperform the functions and operations taught below. It is described thatthe system may be any kind of computer or embedded system. The disclosedembodiments may especially be used for low-end devices, like wearabledevices (e.g., watches), electronic implants, sensory and controlinfrastructure devices, controllers, supervisory control and dataacquisition (SCADA) systems, or the like. Moreover, the apparatuses,methods, and systems described herein are not limited to physicalcomputing devices, but may also relate to software optimizations forenergy conservation and efficiency. As will become readily apparent inthe description below, the embodiments of methods, apparatuses, andsystems described herein (whether in reference to hardware, firmware,software, or a combination thereof) are vital to a ‘green technology’future balanced with performance considerations.

Although the embodiments herein are described with reference to aprocessor, other embodiments are applicable to other types of integratedcircuits and logic devices. Similar techniques and teachings ofembodiments of the present invention may be applied to other types ofcircuits or semiconductor devices that may benefit from higher pipelinethroughput and improved performance. The teachings of embodiments of thepresent invention are applicable to any processor or machine thatperforms data manipulations. However, the present invention is notlimited to processors or machines that perform 512 bit, 256 bit, 128bit, 64 bit, 32 bit, or 16 bit data operations and may be applied to anyprocessor and machine in which manipulation or management of data isperformed. In addition, the description herein provides examples, andthe accompanying drawings show various examples for the purposes ofillustration. However, these examples should not be construed in alimiting sense as they are merely intended to provide examples ofembodiments of the present invention rather than to provide anexhaustive list of all possible implementations of embodiments of thepresent invention.

Although the below examples describe instruction handling anddistribution in the context of execution units and logic circuits, otherembodiments of the present invention may be accomplished by way of adata or instructions stored on a machine-readable, tangible medium,which when performed by a machine cause the machine to perform functionsconsistent with at least one embodiment of the invention. In oneembodiment, functions associated with embodiments of the presentinvention are embodied in machine-executable instructions. Theinstructions may be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purposeprocessor that is programmed with the instructions to perform the stepsof the present invention. Embodiments of the present invention may beprovided as a computer program product or software which may include amachine or computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructionswhich may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) toperform one or more operations according to embodiments of the presentinvention. Alternatively, operations of embodiments of the presentinvention might be performed by specific hardware components thatcontain fixed-function logic for performing the operations, or by anycombination of programmed computer components and fixed-functionhardware components.

Instructions used to program logic to perform embodiments of theinvention may be stored within a memory in the system, such as DRAM,cache, flash memory, or other storage. Furthermore, the instructions maybe distributed via a network or by way of other computer readable media.Thus a machine-readable medium may include any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer), but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks,Compact Disc, Read-Only Memory (CD-ROMs), and magneto-optical disks,Read-Only Memory (ROMs), Random Access Memory (RAM), ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), magnetic or optical cards, flashmemory, or a tangible, machine-readable storage used in the transmissionof information over the Internet via electrical, optical, acoustical orother forms of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infraredsignals, digital signals, etc.). Accordingly, the computer-readablemedium includes any type of tangible machine-readable medium suitablefor storing or transmitting electronic instructions or information in aform readable by a machine (e.g., a computer).

A design may go through various stages, from creation to simulation tofabrication. Data representing a design may represent the design in anumber of manners. First, as is useful in simulations, the hardware maybe represented using a hardware description language or anotherfunctional description language. Additionally, a circuit level modelwith logic and/or transistor gates may be produced at some stages of thedesign process. Furthermore, most designs, at some stage, reach a levelof data representing the physical placement of various devices in thehardware model. In the case where conventional semiconductor fabricationtechniques are used, the data representing the hardware model may be thedata specifying the presence or absence of various features on differentmask layers for masks used to produce the integrated circuit. In anyrepresentation of the design, the data may be stored in any form of amachine readable medium. A memory or a magnetic or optical storage suchas a disc may be the machine readable medium to store informationtransmitted via optical or electrical wave modulated or otherwisegenerated to transmit such information. When an electrical carrier waveindicating or carrying the code or design is transmitted, to the extentthat copying, buffering, or re-transmission of the electrical signal isperformed, a new copy is made. Thus, a communication provider or anetwork provider may store on a tangible, machine-readable medium, atleast temporarily, an article, such as information encoded into acarrier wave, embodying techniques of embodiments of the presentinvention.

A module as used herein refers to any combination of hardware, software,and/or firmware. As an example, a module includes hardware, such as amicro-controller, associated with a non-transitory medium to store codeadapted to be executed by the micro-controller. Therefore, reference toa module, in one embodiment, refers to the hardware, which isspecifically configured to recognize and/or execute the code to be heldon a non-transitory medium. Furthermore, in another embodiment, use of amodule refers to the non-transitory medium including the code, which isspecifically adapted to be executed by the microcontroller to performpredetermined operations. And as may be inferred, in yet anotherembodiment, the term module (in this example) may refer to thecombination of the microcontroller and the non-transitory medium. Oftenmodule boundaries that are illustrated as separate commonly vary andpotentially overlap. For example, a first and a second module may sharehardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof, whilepotentially retaining some independent hardware, software, or firmware.In one embodiment, use of the term logic includes hardware, such astransistors, registers, or other hardware, such as programmable logicdevices.

Use of the phrase ‘configured to,’ in one embodiment, refers toarranging, putting together, manufacturing, offering to sell, importingand/or designing an apparatus, hardware, logic, or element to perform adesignated or determined task. In this example, an apparatus or elementthereof that is not operating is still ‘configured to’ perform adesignated task if it is designed, coupled, and/or interconnected toperform said designated task. As a purely illustrative example, a logicgate may provide a 0 or a 1 during operation. But a logic gate‘configured to’ provide an enable signal to a clock does not includeevery potential logic gate that may provide a 1 or 0. Instead, the logicgate is one coupled in some manner that during operation the 1 or 0output is to enable the clock. Note once again that use of the term‘configured to’ does not require operation, but instead focus on thelatent state of an apparatus, hardware, and/or element, where in thelatent state the apparatus, hardware, and/or element is designed toperform a particular task when the apparatus, hardware, and/or elementis operating.

Furthermore, use of the phrases ‘to,’ ‘capable of/to,’ and or ‘operableto,’ in one embodiment, refers to some apparatus, logic, hardware,and/or element designed in such a way to enable use of the apparatus,logic, hardware, and/or element in a specified manner. Note as abovethat use of to, capable to, or operable to, in one embodiment, refers tothe latent state of an apparatus, logic, hardware, and/or element, wherethe apparatus, logic, hardware, and/or element is not operating but isdesigned in such a manner to enable use of an apparatus in a specifiedmanner.

A value, as used herein, includes any known representation of a number,a state, a logical state, or a binary logical state. Often, the use oflogic levels, logic values, or logical values is also referred to as 1'sand 0's, which simply represents binary logic states. For example, a 1refers to a high logic level and 0 refers to a low logic level. In oneembodiment, a storage cell, such as a transistor or flash cell, may becapable of holding a single logical value or multiple logical values.However, other representations of values in computer systems have beenused. For example the decimal number ten may also be represented as abinary value of 1010 and a hexadecimal letter A. Therefore, a valueincludes any representation of information capable of being held in acomputer system.

Moreover, states may be represented by values or portions of values. Asan example, a first value, such as a logical one, may represent adefault or initial state, while a second value, such as a logical zero,may represent a non-default state. In addition, the terms reset and set,in one embodiment, refer to a default and an updated value or state,respectively. For example, a default value potentially includes a highlogical value, i.e. reset, while an updated value potentially includes alow logical value, i.e. set. Note that any combination of values may beutilized to represent any number of states.

The embodiments of methods, hardware, software, firmware or code setforth above may be implemented via instructions or code stored on amachine-accessible, machine readable, computer accessible, or computerreadable medium which are executable by a processing element. Anon-transitory machine-accessible/readable medium includes any mechanismthat provides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a formreadable by a machine, such as a computer or electronic system. Forexample, a non-transitory machine-accessible medium includesrandom-access memory (RAM), such as static RAM (SRAM) or dynamic RAM(DRAM); ROM; magnetic or optical storage medium; flash memory devices;electrical storage devices; optical storage devices; acoustical storagedevices; other form of storage devices for holding information receivedfrom transitory (propagated) signals (e.g., carrier waves, infraredsignals, digital signals); etc., which are to be distinguished from thenon-transitory mediums that may receive information therefrom.

Instructions used to program logic to perform embodiments of theinvention may be stored within a memory in the system, such as DRAM,cache, flash memory, or other storage. Furthermore, the instructions maybe distributed via a network or by way of other computer readable media.Thus a machine-readable medium may include any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer), but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks,Compact Disc, Read-Only Memory (CD-ROMs), and magneto-optical disks,Read-Only Memory (ROMs), Random Access Memory (RAM), ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), magnetic or optical cards, flashmemory, or a tangible, machine-readable storage used in the transmissionof information over the Internet via electrical, optical, acoustical orother forms of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infraredsignals, digital signals, etc.). Accordingly, the computer-readablemedium includes any type of tangible machine-readable medium suitablefor storing or transmitting electronic instructions or information in aform readable by a machine (e.g., a computer).

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, theappearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” invarious places throughout this specification are not necessarily allreferring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments.

In the foregoing specification, a detailed description has been givenwith reference to specific exemplary embodiments. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made theretowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the appended claims. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than arestrictive sense. Furthermore, the foregoing use of embodiment andother exemplarily language does not necessarily refer to the sameembodiment or the same example, but may refer to different and distinctembodiments, as well as potentially the same embodiment.

Some portions of the detailed description are presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capableof being stored, transferred, combined, compared and otherwisemanipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasonsof common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements,symbols, characters, terms, numbers or the like. The blocks describedherein may be hardware, software, firmware or a combination thereof.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “defining,” “receiving,” “determining,” “issuing,”“linking,” “associating,” “obtaining,” “authenticating,” “prohibiting,”“executing,” “requesting,” “communicating,” or the like, refer to theactions and processes of a computing system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented asphysical (e.g., electronic) quantities within the computing system'sregisters and memories into other data similarly represented as physicalquantities within the computing system memories or registers or othersuch information storage, transmission or display devices.

The words “example” or “exemplary” are used herein to mean serving as anexample, instance or illustration. Any aspect or design described hereinas “example' or “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed aspreferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use ofthe words “example” or “exemplary” is intended to present concepts in aconcrete fashion. As used in this application, the term “or” is intendedto mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or.” That is, unlessspecified otherwise, or clear from context, “X includes A or B” isintended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, ifX includes A; X includes B; or X includes both A and B, then “X includesA or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition,the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appendedclaims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unlessspecified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singularform. Moreover, use of the term “an embodiment” or “one embodiment” or“an implementation” or “one implementation” throughout is not intendedto mean the same embodiment or implementation unless described as such.Also, the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” etc. as usedherein are meant as labels to distinguish among different elements andmay not necessarily have an ordinal meaning according to their numericaldesignation.

1. A computing server device comprising: a memory storing instructionsand databases in which to store commercial metadata and offer metadataharvested from within an offer distribution network; a processor coupledto the memory and to execute the instructions to: compare data from thecommercial metadata that is related to a broadcast commercial to bestreamed to a client media device with data from the offer metadatarelated to available offers from offer providers of the offerdistribution network, to generate a comparison; select an offer from theavailable offers based on the comparison; determine when and over whatvideo stream the broadcast commercial is to be streamed; and deliver theoffer to a display of the client media device as an overlay or a pop-upadvertisement during streaming of the broadcast commercial over thevideo stream.
 2. The computing server device of claim 1, wherein theprocessor is further to: harvest the commercial metadata from aplurality of sources, including multiple channels of streaming media;and index the commercial metadata such that the commercial metadata issearchable.
 3. The computing server device of claim 1, wherein theprocessor is further to: harvest the offer metadata from a plurality ofsources, including from offers available from the offer providers thatare deliverable as advertisements in conjunction with the broadcastcommercial; and index the offer metadata such that the offer metadata issearchable.
 4. The computing server device of claim 1, wherein theprocessor is further to: detect that a screen device is paired to theclient media device; detect selection of the offer displayed on theclient media device by the screen device; and facilitate transfer of adigital version of the offer to a virtual wallet accessible through thescreen device.
 5. The computing server device of claim 1, wherein toselect the offer, the processor is further to compare subject matter ofthe offer metadata to interests of a user that operates the client mediadevice, and to include interests related to subject matter of the offermetadata to generate the comparison.
 6. The computing server device ofclaim 1, wherein to select the offer, the processor further to:determine that no offers are available from a brand owner sponsoring thebroadcast commercial; and locate an offer available from a franchisee orother retailer authorized to sell a product or service to which thebroadcast commercial relates.
 7. A computing server device comprising: amemory storing instructions and databases in which to store commercialmetadata and offer metadata harvested from within an offer distributionnetwork; a processor coupled to the memory and to execute theinstructions to: compare data from the commercial metadata that isrelated to a broadcast commercial to be streamed to a client mediadevice with data from the offer metadata related to available offersfrom offer providers of the offer distribution network, to generate acomparison; select an offer from the available offers based on thecomparison; determine when and over what video stream the broadcastcommercial is to be streamed; detect that a screen device is paired tothe client media device; and deliver the offer to a display of thescreen device during streaming of the broadcast commercial over thevideo stream to the client media device.
 8. The computing sever deviceof claim 7, wherein the processor is further to execute the instructionsto: detect selection of the offer through the screen device; andfacilitate transfer of a digital version of the offer to a virtualwallet accessible through the screen device.
 9. The computing serverdevice of claim 7, wherein to select the offer, the processor is furtherto compare subject matter of the offer metadata to environmental factorsof the client media device comprising at least one of: weather, locationof the client media device, or time of day.
 10. The computing serverdevice of claim 7, wherein to select the offer, the processor furtherto: determine that no offers are available from a brand owner sponsoringthe broadcast commercial; and locate an offer available from afranchisee or other retailer authorized to sell a product or service towhich the broadcast commercial relates. 11-16. (canceled)
 17. A methodcomprising: harvesting, using a processor of an offer computing system,commercial metadata related to broadcast commercials broadcast within anoffer distribution network; storing, using the processor and in acommercial metadata database of memory, the commercial metadata;harvesting, using the processor, offer metadata related to offersavailable to deliver with a plurality of broadcast commercials, whereinthe offers are generated by offer provider systems of the offerdistribution network; storing, using the processor and in an offermetadata database of memory, the offer metadata; matching, using theprocessor, the commercial metadata with the offer metadata to determinea plurality of first offers that are most targeted to subject matter ofa first broadcast commercial of the plurality of broadcast commercials;and select, using the processor, a first offer from the plurality offirst offers to deliver with the first broadcast commercial to a clientmedia device, wherein to select the first offer is further to target thefirst offer to interests of a user of the client media device.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, wherein matching the commercial metadata with theoffer metadata comprises determining that a threshold amount of thecommercial metadata matches subject matter of each offer beforeincluding an offer in the plurality of first offers.
 19. The method ofclaim 17, further comprising determining that none of the plurality offirst offers is a direct offer from a brand owner of a product orservice of the first broadcast commercial, wherein the plurality offirst offers are possible indirect offers from a vendor or retailer. 20.The method of claim 17, further comprising selecting a second offer todeliver with the first broadcast commercial to the client media devicein lieu of the first offer, in response to determining that the firstoffer has already been collected through the client media device. 21.The method of claim 17, further comprising determining the interests ofthe user by at least one of: accessing past purchases of the user;accessing past interactions of the user with the first offer or withsimilar offers; accessing a wish list of the user for items of interest;accessing profile information including gender, family type, andresidence location; or determining a location of the client media devicethrough a geo-locating feature of the client media device.
 22. Themethod of claim 17, further comprising delivering the first offer as anoverlay, inset or pop-up advertisement to the first broadcast commercialbeing streamed to the client media device.
 23. The method of claim 22,further comprising: receiving an indication of selection of the firstoffer by a communication device paired to the client media device; andtransferring, responsive to receiving the indication of the selection ofthe first offer, the first offer to a virtual wallet of thecommunication device.
 24. The method of claim 17, further comprising:detecting that a screen device is paired to the client media device;delivering the first offer for display on the screen device; detectingselection of the first offer through the screen device; and facilitatingtransfer of a digital version of the first offer to a virtual walletaccessible through the screen device.